Published September 26, 2025

When people in written-word newsrooms say they’re passionate about style, I get nervous. They almost never mean, “I love learning things I never knew that challenge what I’d always accepted as gospel.” They usually mean, “I unquestioningly follow what was told to me many years ago and am vigilant about looking for violations of that!”

From my experience, at least.

This speaks to why I advocate for less heavy-handed editing.

Not many industries would reward the latter mindset ( “I unquestioningly follow what was told to me many years ago and am vigilant about looking for violations of that!”) and ignore or discourage the former (“I love learning things I never knew that challenge what I’d always accepted as gospel.”).

After 42 years of doing this, that’s how I think of newsrooms and style/grammar/usage. And so often it happens with disregard for what’s best for the reader.

At least one person in every newsroom I’ve worked in made clear to me that continuing education and ongoing dialogue with top editors around the country not only does me no good, it’s seen as a detriment, an impediment. That would worry me as a member of upper management. Why would you want your publication to stay stuck in the past while the world drifts away from you more every day? Wouldn’t you think if you didn’t do something about that, you’d wake up one day and be irrelevant?

A discussion took place

Years ago I made the mistake of joining a LinkedIn conversation about whether a meeting “was held” or “took place” or however people suggested to write it “correctly.” People parsed the definitions of “held” and “took” and “place” in ridiculous ways.

We glue or tape all sorts of words together for the expressions we use. If the meaning is clear, what’s the problem?

The Pedant Wars constantly remind me of something a friend in academia once told me: The battles are so vicious because the stakes are so small.

I laughed because it’s true, but it’s also true that the more newsrooms and editors refuse to evolve with language, the higher the stakes will be.

That’s the tea heading into the weekend. Protect your peace.

♥

Thank you

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